The present invention relates to heat transfer cycles, and more particularly to a routing system for such cycles, as well as a method of routing a working fluid for the cycles.
A wide variety of approaches have been employed to transport heat, such as throughout a fluid routing system containing one or more heat exchanging devices. These approaches may be categorized as passive or active. An active system consumes power to move heat, and may include pumping a single phase liquid throughout a loop or circuit, for example. The vapor compression cycle approach requires the use of a compressor to compress the working fluid from vapor phase to liquid phase. A condenser downstream of the compressor rejects the sensible heat from compressed liquid. The evaporator at the final stage of the cycle allows the high pressure liquid to vaporize and absorb the heat from the heat source. Such systems typically consume a large amount of power and a large amount of working fluid is required. A passive system does not consume power and may rely on devices such as a heat pipe or loop heat pipe, for example. This type of system “pumps” the working fluid by capillary pressure produced by a porous wick structure inside the evaporator. Although power consumption is avoided, the capillary pressure produced by the evaporator wick is limited, which thereby decreases system efficiency and heat transport capability.